


The Heart in Her Hands

by Cherubin0



Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-01
Updated: 2015-04-01
Packaged: 2018-03-20 16:21:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3657009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cherubin0/pseuds/Cherubin0
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Following the events of Portal 2, Chell leaves Aperture to rejoin humanity but finds herself drawn back to the facility and its queen... eventual ChellDOS.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Heart in Her Hands

At first she just stands there for a minute, not quite believing what’s just happened. Then it all hits her in a rush of emotion, and her knees weaken and give out underneath her. She digs her fingers into the dirt and watches fat tears paint the ground beneath her.

_How—How in the hell—_

With a shuddering gasp, Chell leans against the soot-covered companion cube and runs one dirty hand along its crevices. It’s back, and it’s hers. She can tell from the dent along one of the corners, the scratches in the pink paint where she’d bashed it against test chamber platforms. And even through the smoky layers of silt and dirt, Chell is able to breathe in its heart-wrenchingly familiar metallic scent.

_Is this... Am I…_

She turns her face to the sky and throws a hand in front of her eyes to block out the intense sunlight. After taking a moment to let her eyes adjust, she removes her hand and basks in the sun’s warmth. A cool breeze gently lifts her greasy ponytail from her shoulders.

_Am I free?_

 Behind her, something rumbles inside the shack. She whirls around, her heart jumping into her throat as she moves behind her companion cube. The noise dies out as quickly as it came, and Chell gives her thrumming heart a moment to settle down.

It can’t be real. It has to be another one of GLaDOS’s tricks. Something—or some _one_ —will come for her eventually. She needs to go, and she needs to do it quickly.

Looking around wildly for a destination, Chell’s able to make out what seems to be a city skyline in the distance. It’s surrounded by a blanket of smog, and if there’s anything the ex-test-subject learned about humanity from GLaDOS’s constant quips, it’s that modern humans tend to leave a dirty trail wherever they go.

 _Well, anywhere’s better than here._ Chell hefts her companion cube onto her hip—holy _hell,_ it’s a lot heavier without her ASHPD—and speeds away from the rusty shack as quickly as she can.

 

She runs for twenty minutes before the stitch in her side becomes impossible to bear. Dropping her cube into the dirt with a muffled _thud_ , she removes her jumpsuit’s sweater and ties it around her head to block out some of the sun.

It’s all so surreal. Being in the outside world is simultaneously everything and nothing like she’d ever imagined. Everything—from the cacophony of the waving wheat stalks to the clouds drifting lazily above, and even to the intense heat of the sun and the burning in her lungs—is incredibly intoxicating.

 _Because it’s real,_ Chell thinks. _It’s real, and I’m free._ But she’s not free, not yet. She lifts her cube and sets out again, this time at a more easily sustained pace.

As the sun stretches across the sky, Chell keeps her eyes trained on the skyline and the distant cloud of smog. She fears that if she turns around, she’ll see the shack still ten feet behind her, or worse, one of GLaDOS’s horrible machines ready to incapacitate her and drag her back to the facility. So she keeps putting one foot in front of the other, and as the day slips into dusk the wheat fields underfoot give way to a huge expanse of grass.

Blisters on Chell’s feet form and pop in the same step. Numbness crawls its way from her hands into her arms, and sweat stings her eyes as it drips down her face.

 _Can’t stop now. GLaDOS will get me. She’ll come for me, and she’ll get me._ With new resolve, Chell shifts the cube in her arms and presses onwards, even as her pounding headache worsens with every slogged step she takes. She starts to worry that she won’t be able to see her destination in the darkness, but soon the tall buildings of the skyline are dotted with bright lights. Chell’s heart lifts, and she’s unable to keep a smile from spreading across her face—lights mean people even more than smog does.

As darkness covers the hazy sky, she finds it harder to find footing in the uneven hills. More than once she topples over, landing awkwardly on the companion cube but pushing herself up to her feet and continuing anyway. The birds and bugs bed down for the night, and as Chell runs out of things to gape and wonder at her mind begins to drift back to Aperture.

It all happened so fast. One moment she’d been fighting for her life in Wheatley’s so-called ‘lair’, the next she’d been in space—

Oh god. She’d been in _space._

Something roars in her ears as she trips over her own feet and tumbles to the ground. For a moment the world seems to close in on her, and all she can do is press her hands to her ears and shiver.

Space. She’d almost been lost in the vacuum of space. If it weren’t for GLaDOS…

Slowly, she regains the ability to breathe normally. She holds that image in her mind—GLaDOS holding onto her arm and dragging her back through the portal. She doesn’t know why it helps, but it does. The roar in her ears dissipates, and she pulls herself into a sitting position with her back against her companion cube.

 _Oh, thank_ God _you’re all right._ GLaDOS’s words echo around her head. Chell wonders if she’s ever heard anything so sincere come from the AI’s speakers before. She looks down at her arms—in the dim light of the moon she can just make out the rough patches of her skin where she must have been burned by Wheatley’s booby trap. GLaDOS must have tended to her injuries while Chell was unconscious.

Chell frowns as she leans her head back, taking in the view of the stars with bewilderment and a strange warm feeling in her stomach. _She saved me. GLaDOS saved me._

Finally confidant that she won’t faint if she tries to stand, Chell pulls herself to her feet and carries on her way, the warmth in her stomach spreading through her exhausted limbs for reasons she can’t begin to fathom in her disheveled state.

A light rain begins to fall, and Chell turns her face up and lets her mouth hang open as she walks.

 

Eventually Chell loses track of the number of steps she’s taken, and the minutes bleed into hours. The rain has turned the grass underfoot to mud, and her boots sink deep into the sodden earth with every step. The only two things connecting her to reality are the city lights dancing in front of her drooping eyes and the moon slowly making its way across the cloudy night sky.

She’s close enough to the city now that she can make out the faint outlines of immense skyscrapers and majestic spires. The sheer number of buildings and lights are dumbfounding, and Chell stares with such unabashed wonder that she doesn’t see the small garden shed until she runs into it face first.

With a _woof_ of air Chell stumbles backwards and lands square on her butt, the companion cube landing on top of her and knocking out what little wind she had left in her. Wheezing like an old woman, Chell hefts herself up on her elbows and peers around the side of the shed.

A quaint little farmhouse sits on the top of a quaint little hill some thirty yards away, and a dim porchlight swings gently in the breeze. Chell scrambles to her feet, leaning on her companion cube until she has enough breath back to pick up the cube and run up the side of the hill, nearly tripping over herself several times in the process.

She trips up the porch stairs, drops her companion cube on the wooden floor, and bangs both fists on the door until she can hear footsteps and shouting from inside.

“Good lord, Miles, what the _hell_ do you want this early in the—“

The door is thrown open and a middle-aged man in a dressing gown with graying hair freezes in the middle of rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He looks Chell up and down, and the ex-test-subject sways on her feet. Her vision swims and she can feel her knees giving way, the adrenaline of escape rushing out of her all at once.

“What in— _Danielle!”_ The man shouts into the house as Chell collapses onto the porch. As her vision clouds over, a memory of a voice rings in her mind. _Oh, thank god you’re all right._ It’s GLaDOS’s voice again.

Chell smiles and lets her eyes droop closed.

**Author's Note:**

> First fic on Ao3! Lemme know what you think-- I'm new to this whole thing. Thanks for reading!


End file.
